Freelance writing is one of the best ways to make money from home. You don’t need any special training, the opportunities are plentiful, and you don’t even need a website to get started. As long as you can provide well written, thoughtful content — you can make a good amount of money.

Not convinced?

New York Times Best Selling Author, Nora Roberts, only has a high school education. She started writing her first novel back in 1979 after being trapped at home due to blizzard conditions. To date, Nora has written 209 romance novels – incredible!

Still don't believe me?

A few years ago Danny Margulies decided to quit his full-time job to pursue a copywriting career using the freelance platform, Elance. Without any special education or training, he was quickly able to hone his skills and pull in six-figures during his second year working as a copywriter.

Blog Writing

Writing blog posts is a quick and easy way to earn money and gain exposure, as numerous sites will allow a short bio with a link back to your website. Many of these sites have established guidelines in place, so make sure you carefully read through the details and follow all of the rules. Crafting a thoughtful pitch will improve your chances of getting accepted.

Freelance Writing Platforms

No matter what type of writing gig you're looking for (article writing, copywriting, ghostwriting, grant writing, e-books, or technical) you'll be able to find it on these freelance writing platforms. Simply search the job postings and submit a bid. If your bid is accepted, you complete the work and get paid through the platform.

Greeting Cards

Have a knack for writing short and sweet sentiments? Turn your ideas into cash by submitting your words to greeting card companies. According to Carol Eannarino, payment for a greeting card idea ranges from $10 to $50 depending on the studio.

Helpful Tips and Short Stories

Print and online magazines are constantly looking for new content that’s why many publications are willing to pay for short stories, helpful tips, poems and even jokes. Here are just a few publications that pay for submissions. Payment is made only if your tip or story is published.

Revenue Sharing

With revenue sharing sites, you contribute content to the site, and in return, you make a percentage of the advertising revenue generated from your content. Each site does it a little differently; some offer base pay, while others are strictly based on how much traffic or how many clicks your content receives. Personally, I've never tried to make money this way, but here are some success tips from Carol Tice.

Romance Novels

Do you want to write the next Fifty Shades of Gray? Then submit your manuscript to one of the many romance publishers. New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author, Brenda Hiatt has a great list of approximately what each publisher pays for first and subsequent novels.

Travel Writing

Who doesn't dream of traveling the world and getting paid to write about their adventures? While most travel gigs pay in free travel, food, lodging, and activities, there are a few outlets that will pay a small amount for your writing.

Originally published on February 25, 2015. Content updated on September 26, 2017.

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Comments

Holly, thanks for including Write Naked on your list of blogs that compensate writers. Just wanted to let you know the rate posted is incorrect. I do not pay $100. (I ran a promotion a few years ago for that rate, so perhaps you saw an old page.) I pay $50 per guest post, but if I am particularly wowed with a pitch I pay $200. Thanks again–really appreciate the exposure and love the site you have built here.

Parents, teachers and homeschoolers – Get paid to share your expertise and ideas with thousands of readers!! -Opportunities for paid blog posts on the Educents blog (blog.educents.com) -Receive a quarterly newsletter with blog topic ideas -Receive invitations to submit pitches for blog posts -Get your name out there! Every blog post published on Educents has an author bio

Would anyone happen to know a good place to write opinion articles? Maybe 300 to 500 words for $10 a pop? Whenever I find these lists of blogs and publications that pay, they are almost never looking for opinion. Maybe the niche is not profitable.

This is by far the most complete list I have come across of the highest paying writing jobs. I have been seriously considering working as a freelance writer, however many of the jobs that I have seem are not as generous in compensation as the ones listed here in your article. I look forward to checking out these opportunities! Thank you!

Holly, I just wanted to thank you for this incredible post. It’s full of SO much good information and resources to find freelance writing work online. I can tell you spent a lot of time on it, so thank you, thank you, thank you! And I had NO idea about Nora Roberts only having a high-school education! That is a great cocktail party fact, too! Hope you’re well.

So many interesting information, thanks. I also would like to recommend another source paperwritingonline.com. I often write to this site. If it’s interesting for somebody, you can visit a site or write me for more information.

Thanks for all the information. I am a homemaker and enjoy writing picture book stories, I have been looking for some freelance work and your article has been a blessing. I will be checking at the sites you recommend, thanks again and take care.

Hi holly I enjoyed reading your post on writing I love writing and would like to start blogging How can I find a how to guide to begin blogging? And with no experience what best choices are there for hiring fresh writers

Have you written articles before? Or is this your first stab at freelance writing? If you’re new to the game, I’d suggest looking at the ProBlogger job board or Upwork. Get some articles under your belt, then go after higher paying gigs.

Hi Holly! There are a ton of awesome ideas here that I am eager to explore! I recently started a blog that I’m going to use as a portfolio for my pieces and hopefully will submit them somewhere for pay and future writing gigs. I am currently working in a full time office job and would like to move from this lifestyle that allows me to write remotely on a more flexible schedule. I have just submitted an essay to a contest about my experiences as a person with a disability. I’m wondering if you have any additional suggestions on where to send my essay, or else any information you can provide as I try to embark upon this difficult career change. Thanks so much!

Thanks for the informative post. I’ve been trying to assess the validity of the site writingjobz.com for a potential scam without much luck. I notice that it isn’t on your list. Have you ever heard anything about them? If not, could you please look into this? I’ve given my info (basic application stuff, but still) and am, sadly, backward fact-checking. Thanks!

The one thing that stands out to me is they’re hiring writers, but nowhere on the website are they selling the articles to clients. Most legit sites have a page for customers and another for writers. They are based in India, not the US — I’d steer clear of this one.

All this being said if you’re a fast writer, and you don’t spend a lot of time on each article, maybe you could make minimum wage working on Demand Studio stuff. Which would be cool if you’re working from home and that’s all the money you were looking for. But long-term, other “freelance” writing jobs would be likely to net you a lot more. Blogging is my favorite.

I’ve done quite a bit of freelance writing, myself–not the website, but jobs you hunt down for yourself in corporate America–and the income can be excellent, but often requires a lot more personal marketing or a good list of personal contacts. And you’ll need to be able to prove you can do the work with a combination of references, education, and samples. You also need to have the good aptitude for customer service, so you can keep your clients happy.

I am interested in writing about women’s life experiences. Its been suggested to me because of my sense of humor and the way I look at life, especially mine!! Blogging has been suggested but boy I feel lost and not so sure. Main ideas?

I also have had a lot of luck scoring paid contracts on freelancing websites like Upwork. I t’s tough to build up a profile initially, but after about a year I was able to make solid money – between $500-$1000 per week. It’s all about building up a profile and reputation, just like any business.

Hi, I am Rashid from India.Just recently I had started blogging and I had published two based on my personal experience.Now I am willing to write a short fictional story.Can you suggest me any site where I could begin with?

Hi Lesley, Have you thought about curriculum writing or instructional design? Really, the sky’s the limit, you can write for education blogs, magazines, newsletters. It just depends on your area of expertise within the education field and what type of writing interests you.

This may seem a rather daft question, and it is, but: I’m a man. Now, can men, even incredibly heterosexual ones such as me (lol), utilize and take advantage of these services as a means to market their writerly talents? Also, I have found that, for me personally, nonfiction writing is easier than fiction. However, I must strongly emphasize that this opinion is tempered by and only true of those times when one finds that they can be just as creative and imaginative and fluid and free and freewheeling in their nonfiction as they are in their fiction. To that end, I have furthermore discovered that, for me personally, in addition to the writing of certain essays and ersatz/satirical articles and the prosy like, poetry is also relatively easy to write. Indeed, it is EASIER to write. At least, it is for me, anyway. Now, don’t get me wrong, I also like to fiction, but I can’t write it as speedily and with as much insouciant ease as I can various forms of essay and poetry. Again, that’s just me, though. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity of using this forum as a means of getting a few things off my chest. However, I have one last query to advance: As I have recently written a great, semiautobiographical (or perhaps pseudoautobiographical) seriocomical/jocoserious short story that has a great deal of erotic imagery, action and description in it, I wonder where I might publish this story? It is not, I must stress, despite it’s sexual nature and the intrinsic, crucial importance of the eroticism therein, a bona fide erotic story. It is not erotica, as they call it. It is far above and beyond the trashy simplicity of erotica. Yet, as I said, the middle section of it is a sex scene, but one that I twist and manipulate every sort of human emotion out of, and that sex scene is not gratuitous, it is essential to the story and the plot. I am not one to, even in the writing of the very few forays into erotica and eroticism that I have attempted over the past seven years, write of sexuality overmuch, or at all, or gratuitously, but as this was integral, I saw no reason to withhold the sexual from the bounds of my prose.

Regardless, and for comedic effect a few very dirty vulgarities and smutty colloquialisms are used within the context of my tale, but still I wonder: Who would publish such an esoteric, unidentifiable, eclectic work?

I am rightly proud of the story, it being one of the best and funniest yet most strangely sad stories I’ve ever written, and long to see it in all the unbounded glory of print.

(I did not mean this thing to turn out to be some abridged story of my life, but as the next revelation that I am about to parenthetically reveal is somewhat imperative, I feel I must, if only as a means to create an understanding of me, my works and, most especially, my STYLE and TECHNIQUE as a writer, share the following bit of semi-personal data with you: Namely, that I am an avid reader in general and in particular of the greatest Anglo-American/European/Russian/Near-Eastern/Mediterranean writers of all manner of prose of the past several millennia, but with an especial focus on the greatest writers of the 1700’s-1960’s: and before and beyond: and it is them and their monumental and intellectually-stimulating, descriptive, sublime works that inform all my writing….therefore, that’s why I’ve elected to write in the way in which I’ve done here….not to impress, except by diffusion and osmosis, but rather because it is just the general, natural way I always have of speaking and, most especially, writing. Thank you bearing with me through this difficult digression….which, if I was going to submit and publish this essay-length comment, I think that would make an excellent title for it! lol)

I am interested in a stay at home career in writing. I am a mother of two and I have been writing for many years. Nothing has been published. I write short stories, children’s stories and some poetry. can you please let me know in which direction I should be looking to get started.

Wow! Thank you so much for this blog post! I have never seen so much accurate and helpful information in one post! I have bookmarked this page and will be checking all of them out! Thank you so very much!

Hi Holly, My passions include being a life long runner and outdoor enthusiast, having owned a fairly large business in that niche. In addition, healthy pro-active nutrition, and politics are included. Do you have any recommendations as to what writing industries or companies to pursue? I’m interested in doing reviews, blogs, copywriting but open to suggestions. Thank you very much! Kathy

Hi Kathy, What about Live Strong? They are always hiring writers in a variety of categories. Also, check out your favorite brands and companies and research their blog posts. Maybe they haven’t added any new content in a long time, and you can send them a proposal, or you can pitch them a few ideas that they haven’t covered. Good luck!

I’m used to write in french. I tried upwork but i’m paid 5 dollars per 1000 words or 7 dollars… Can you suggest me a website where i can write in french but having good salary like those websites you posts on your blog ? And can you suggest me VA in french website please ?

I just wanted to let you know that you are my muse for extensive thoroughness with my writing. I’m just getting started, and you’re my go-to gal for inspiration and encouragement. As of right now I’m trying to learn the technical ropes and migrate my site to a new host. I’d love to have you in my network! Any tips you could share would be immensely appreciated!

This is a great website thank you! I have just graduated with a first but want a writing job from home part time to go alongside another full time job. I like beauty/fashion/baking but having done psychology degree I like to write about current issues, including personal ones such as copying with anxiety etc Do you recommend where I could start writing? Thanks

As retirement approaches, a lifelong desire to simply create, write, and explore avenues that have always proven themselves a true interest and passion is rapidly pulling me in to my most deepest desires of these areas. Admittedly, there are so many areas that are catching my attention, so the question now is, “Where to begin?” Thank you so very much.

Great list!! I recently started a free writing leads site as a labor of love from one writer to another. It’s a daily list of Canadian writing jobs and remote and freelance opportunities, too. Feel free to share or check it out. WritingJobsCanada.ca